Mokuren
by MelissaKatherine
Summary: This is the story of Mokuren, a girl born and raised in Sunagakure no Sato long after Madara has been defeated. After being placed on a team with two boys named Tetsuko and Kentsu, her life just might become more interesting than she'd ever hoped. OC-Centric (Absolutely no Canon/OC), Next gen, On the second arc (Lost Mission). On a long-term hiatus due to family issues.
1. Team Temari - Meeting

**_Disclaimer: I'm only going to say this once. Anything you recognize from somewhere else obviously doesn't belong to me._**

**_Brief Author's Note: This is OC-Centric, takes place in Suna, uses some Japanese terms with no translations, and I've been vague when looking back in history. The first few chapters really suck right now and the others used to have lengthy opening and ending notes; I've gotten rid of those and will soon redo these first few chapters before releasing a new one._**

**_Updates should be weekly on Sundays once I start up again._**

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**_Arc One, Team Temari; Chapter One, Meeting_**

_It all began with an image of a town filled with cylinder-shaped adobe buildings, surrounded by protective cliffs. There were only two colors visible; the inky blue-black of the sky, and the pearly white of the full moon and its light reflected on the sandy landscape. Most of the buildings were a little blurry, with only the ones Mokuren knew well in clear definition. One by one, Mokuren looked at her favorite places in the only village she'd ever lived in. She could see the Ninja Academy, the Kazekage tower, the training grounds, her father's favorite restaurant, Nesuri's weapons shop, her Uncle Senurou and Aunt Umerano's home... the final building she paid attention to was her own house. As the image began to close in on her house, a person came into sight, walking hurriedly towards the house. As she observed this person, Mokuren felt a chill run through her._

_The person - man or woman, shinobi or civilian, Mokuren couldn't tell - hesitated before the door. Before they could knock, a five year-old girl yanked it open. "Okaerinasai, Otou-tan!" She chirped, jumping up to hug the stranger. Almost immediately, she pulled back, frowning suspiciously. "You're not Otou-tan... who are you?"_

_Swallowing loudly, the stranger said nothing for a moment. Then, they asked, "Is there a woman named Hanatsuya here?"_

_"Hmm? Oh, __her_. _Hmmph. I'll go get her..." The little girl pouted, turning and stomping back into her house, her dusty brown pigtails bouncing angrily with every step. Within a couple of minutes she returned with a disgruntled-looking civilian woman with pale blonde hair down to her waist._

_"Isn't it a bit late for solicitors?" Hanatsuya spoke snidely._

_"I'm not a solicitor..." The stranger grumbled, momentarily annoyed. Then their expression became slightly nervous. "Are you Teru's wife, Hanatsuya?"_

_Hanatsuya froze momentarily, and her eyes widened. "Y-yes..."_

_"I'm so sorry for your loss." The messenger said, looking towards the ground. "Your husband was killed -"_

_"That's not funny!" The little girl interrupted immediately, yanking on the stranger's boots. "Otou-tan is the best shinobi ever! There's no way he's dead!"_

_Her only reply was a look full of pity as the person quietly gave what details he could. Ignoring the stranger, she continued to yell, even as her mother howled and fell to her knees, soaking her dress with tears. "He can't be dead!"_

Gasping for breath as she woke up, Mokuren rubbed her forehead. Her room was still dark and her clock said that it would be three or four hours before she really needed to get up, but after that dream she knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. Taking a moment to make up her mind, Mokuren slid out of bed and dressed. As she opened her bedroom door, a glint caught her eye. On the table beside her bed, her forehead protector was carefully folded. Frowning slightly, Mokuren went back and put it on. Somehow, she just kept forgetting that she was now a genin of Suna, and needed to wear the proof of that fact proudly.

Mokuren could hear her mother snoring in the next room, and peeked in to check on her. She stunk of alcohol and her mascara had run down her face, and Mokuren sighed as she closed the door again. Sticking to shadows and alleyways, Mokuren explored Suna. The desert became so cold at night that there was almost no one out, although shinobi could be seen jumping across the flat rooftops now and again. She relished the peacefulness of the early hours of morning, when even the wind calmed and quieted down. She walked around until the horizon began to lighten and the moon had finally set, and then went to her rooftop to watch the stars slowly fade out of the sky and wisps of clouds appear and disappear before the sun rose and turned everything its light touched to gold. Even Mokuren's brown pigtails looked golden, and she sighed and stretched before going in to turn on the coffee pot and read a book. Just then, it was a bit cold for training, but the sun was normally quick to warm things. It was only as she arrived at the training grounds she remembered that today was the day she would be assigned a genin team.

It was doubtful that there would be any sort of test today, but nonetheless Mokuren stuck to taijutsu practice. She didn't want to risk being low on chakra if there was a chance she'd need it, although Mokuren had been told genin hardly ever got to use any. Around nine o'clock, an hour before the time she'd been told to meet at the Academy, she stopped and began heading that way.

As Mokuren entered the classroom, she noticed that despite leaving early, she had apparently arrived late. Checking her watch against the clock on the wall, she realized that it had fallen behind an hour and sighed.

"Team One - Maitsu, Udonsu, Kirikama!" Their Academy teacher, Inoue, was reading off of a scroll. Mokuren only vaguely knew who the last two were, and was quite glad that she hadn't been too late to hear all of the teams. She slid into a seat in the back beside Maitsu, hoping that her teacher hadn't noticed her absence. "Team Two - Kurekiro, Aomaru -"

"You've got rings around your eyes." Maitsu scolded Mokuren, sounding more irritated than concerned. Since they were in the very back, Inoue paid them no mind. "You'd better hope your jounin sensei doesn't expect anything of you today, because you don't look like you could handle any work."

"Don't you worry about me, Chibi-chan." Mokuren yawned.

"Don't call me that!" The three-feet six-inches high kunoichi snapped, glaring fiercely. Maitsu's short spiky black hair, short eyelashes and board-flat chest caused most people to mistake her for a boy. As this also led to people taking her more seriously despite her height, Maitsu dressed to encourage this misconception.

Because of that desire to be taken seriously, Maitsu was the only girl in their class that Mokuren actually thought deserved to be a ninja. She didn't particularly dislike the other girls, but with the way they treated training she certainly wouldn't want any of them watching her back.

"Team Four - Aiko, Shirota, Mizuru!" Inoue finished up, rolling her scroll back up.

Mokuren winced. "Did you catch which team I was on?" She asked Maitsu, but the short girl was pouting with her arms crossed in front of her, looking away, still insulted by her nickname. "That's really immature, you know..." Mokuren sighed, and then raised her hand.

"So, now that you - what is it, Mokuren?" Inoue interrupted herself, looking as exasperated as she usually did when dealing with the brunette.

"Yumi-sensei, what team did you say I was on?" Mokuren asked in a monotone voice, yawning when she was finished.

"My name isn't Yumi, it's Inoue! Honestly, how did someone like you score the best on the genin test?" The teacher moaned, rubbing her forehead. Just looking at Mokuren, much less speaking to her, had always been enough to give Inoue a headache. The way the girl slept in class and forgot the name of a teacher she'd had for years - how could such a disrespectful girl become a kunoichi? And yet...

"The heck?! A girl got the best score?" A boy with pinkish-orange hair shouted, standing up angrily. "That's ridiculous! Who the heck is she anyway? She doesn't look familiar at all. Are you even in the right room?" His voice was very loud, and he banged the table with his fist a few times for emphasis.

"Are you suggesting women can't become strong ninja?" Inoue spoke icily, releasing an angry aura.

"N-no, of course not!" He yelped, ducking under his desk quickly.

"I pity whichever girl is on your team." Mokuren sighed, shaking her head.

"You are the girl on his team." Inoue snorted, her anger draining away as her headache returned.

"What? How is that fair?!" The thin boy with crazy black hair sitting beside the loud one called, standing up and frowning. "I thought teams were supposed to have an even distribution or whatever of -"

"Your team is even! After all, she aced the test... and the two of you just barely passed at all!" In fact, Inoue had expected them to fail it miserably. The two never seemed dedicated to learning, as they always focused on arguing with one another and hardly interacting at all with their other classmates.

"Shouldn't we have the worst, the best, and the most average on our team then?" Mokuren argued, although she sounded more bored than irked.

"They tied for worst, and - oh, just shut up!" Inoue snapped, annoyed at having her authority questioned. She glared around angrily, her eyes daring another student to talk. When nobody did, she relaxed slightly. "Alright. So. I want you all to sit with your teammates and get to know each other. I'm going to come around and explain what location and time you are to meet your jounin sensei. If there's any fighting, I'm taking away the genin status of each participant!" While adding this, Inoue glowered at the two loud-mouthed boys Mokuren now had for teammates.

Once each team had been placed together, Mokuren smiled brightly and rather fakely towards the boys. "It's nice to meet you both. My name is Mokuren - what are your names?"

The larger boy merely scowled at her, while the black-haired boy's face turned a little pink and he said hurriedly, "My name is Tetsuko - this idiot's name is Kentsu. It's nice to meet you, Mokuren-chan!"

Mokuren frowned. These boys had both seemed to disapprove of having her for a teammate, and yet now one was being polite. This Tetsuko... what was with him?

"Who are you calling an idiot? You loser!"

"Don't start arguing, if you guys lose your genin status I probably will too. We can't have a team with just one member." Mokuren sighed as a wave of tiredness hit her, and set her head on the table. She thought she heard Kentsu say something to her, or perhaps about her, but she fell asleep too quickly to really listen.


	2. Team Temari - Temari-sensei

_**Arc One, Team Temari; Chapter Two, Temari-sensei**_

Luckily for Mokuren, Tetsuko was kind enough to wake Mokuren when Inoue dismissed everyone and explain to her where and when they were supposed to meet their jounin sensei. She just hoped he hadn't lied so that he could laugh about it later, because she had the feeling that if she asked Inoue she'd be taking Academy classes all over again.

Mokuren arrived at the rooftop Tetsuko had directed her to ten minutes early to see that the black-haired boy was already there waiting. Stepping around a poorly hidden trap, Mokuren raised an eyebrow at him. Tetsuko awkwardly rubbed his neck. "It's for Kentsu." He explained.

"There's no way he's that stu-" Mokuren began to say, but broke off as her unfinished statement was proven wrong.

"What the heck?" Kentsu shouted, writhing on the ground for a moment, trying to pull his foot out of the trap. Soon enough, though, he was free and throwing angry hooks at Tetsuko. Mokuren couldn't judge the strength behind the punch, but she raised an eyebrow at the way he wildly threw it. Not a single hit landed, although the other boy also seemed clumsy and didn't hit back. Instead, he broke away and began throwing shuriken. Tetsuko's aim was such that although Kentsu was unaffected, Mokuren - who was far to the right - almost lost a toe.

"Are you two seriously this pathetic?" She asked in her most uncaring voice, but internally she couldn't help thinking, _they are, they really are, maybe I shouldn't have annoyed Yumi-sensei so much -_

"Who are you calling pathetic?" Kentsu shouted, while Tetsuko looked somewhat dejected.

"Is there some other pathetic duo around here I could be referring to?" She asked irritably, stepping forward.

"Why, you -" The pink-orange-haired boy - seriously, why wasn't there a specific color for the shade? - growled as he ran at Mokuren. He tried to punch her, but she sidestepped and then tripped him, sending him sprawling.

"Even Kamiki fights better than that, and she_ failed_ the genin exam." Mokuren sighed as she shook her head. _Maybe Yumi-sensei only passed them so that they could drag me down._ The idea wasn't completely impossible - Inoue was a little more vengeful than an Academy teacher should be. Still, Mokuren had hoped the woman would be happy enough just to see her gone.

Tetsuko finally stepped in, although he looked very hesitant. "Look, you two really shouldn't argue, I mean, Kentsu really does need to work on his skills but -"

"He's not the only one." Mokuren pointed out. "What were you aiming at, earlier? None of the shuriken even came close to hitting him. Do you ever practice?" Tetsuko wilted at the criticism, and Mokuren couldn't help but feel annoyed. "And honestly, what is with you? Even your attitude is pathetic! You're a boy, aren't you? When someone insults you, get angry."

"He's not going to get angry at a girl." Kentsu sneered, pushing himself up.

"Funny, I remember him yelling at me in the classroom..."

"That was before he saw your face and -"

"Shut up!" Tetsuko barked, his face apple-red. Actually, it suddenly looked really familiar... While Mokuren took a moment to try and recall exactly what his face reminded her of, the two boys began to argue again. She didn't listen to much of it, but she distinctly heard the word 'crush' and wondered if they were really tossing around threats that lame.

"If the both of you don't quiet down, I'll make you." Mokuren declared when she suddenly felt someone heading their way. If it was their jounin sensei, she didn't want her team making such an awful impression that they were sent back instantly, even if that felt almost inevitable.

"Ha! I'd like to see you -" Kentsu began to say, but Mokuren cut him off, appearing in front of him suddenly and covering his mouth.

"Someone's coming - do you want our teacher's first impression of you to be the same as what you've given me? You'll be back in the Academy before you can say 'No'."

Somehow, that logic actually got into the boy's head, and the three arranged themselves in a line. Although Mokuren felt quite nervous waiting as the person she could sense slowly approached, she nonetheless began to doze off standing now that all was quiet.

"Are you team three?" Mokuren's eyes shot open at the question, as they had closed without her noticing. She felt even more dizzy when she recognized the woman in front of her.

"Are you our jounin sensei?" Tetsuko managed to mumble out despite his jaw resting beside his toes. Mokuren had a feeling she wouldn't be able to speak nearly as well just then.

"I am. My name -"

"Aren't you Kazekage-sama's sister?!" Kentsu blurted out.

"I am." Temari's voice was flat this time. "However, I do still have a name. Temari."

Kentsu grimaced and made to hide behind Tetsuko. However, the other boy pushed him away and bowed respectfully to Temari, with Mokuren copying him a second later. Their other teammate took a minute, and then realized that he should probably apologize. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted..."

Temari exhaled, and reminded herself that the three in front of her were mere children. "Nevermind that. Anyway, introduce yourselves. Give your names, likes, dislikes and goals."

Glancing at the other two and seeing that they were looking towards him, Kentsu grimaced. "My name's Kentsu... I like to eat?" It sounded more like a question than a statement. "I really dislike those two." He added with a sudden burst of confidence. "And as far as goals... I'm going to beat the smug look off this girl's face," He waved an arm towards Mokuren, "And become Kazekage some day!"

Mokuren groaned. Weren't there any original goals left in the world? Couldn't they just settle with becoming jounin or learning a certain number of techniques, or something plausible like that? There had only ever been four Kazekages. Four. There had been thousands of Suna nin, and even if that didn't bring his chances down to almost nothing, the current Kazekage, Gaara, didn't look like he'd be stepping down anytime soon.

"I'm Tetsuko." The black-haired boy introduced himself nervously, but in a clearer voice than Kentsu had used. "I really like looking at the stars and... well..." He turned slightly pink again and Kentsu scowled. "Anyway, I dislike this guy, and I'll definitely become Kazekage before he does."

Well, that wasn't quite as awful... but now it was her turn. What to say, what to say... "My name is Mokuren, I like to eat squid and help out at my favorite restaurant. I don't particularly dislike anything, and my goals are to surpass my father and protect my village." Because obviously that should be in every shinobi's list of goals. "It's nice to meet you, Temari-sensei." She added, bowing again.

Temari nodded her head at Mokuren, her slight surprise not showing on her face. The information she'd recieved on the girl was that she had a habit of sleeping through lessons, ignoring her peers, and disrespecting her teachers. A note had also been added that the teacher suspected Mokuren had cheated somehow in order to pass the genin test with the top score, but Temari would judge the truth of that later. For now, the girl simply seemed boring.

Surveying her new team once more, Temari spoke authoritively. "I expect to see the three of you on training ground twelve at four in the morning tomorrow. If you're not there on time, make sure you return your forehead protector afterwards. I've no use for tardy ninja. Dismissed!" She said abruptly, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Mokuren blinked. "Was that a shadow clone?" She asked, slightly uncertainly. "That didn't seem right for a space-time jutsu..." By 'that', Mokuren was referring to the smoke, and the fact that the Temari just now had definitely had chakra and so it couldn't have been a normal clone.

"We have a jounin sensei who knows _the_ jutsu! Do you think we could -" Kentsu began eagerly, his eyes lighting up.

"You don't have enough chakra." Mokuren immediately shot him down.

"You can't know that." Tetsuko protested.

"I do." Mokuren assured him. "No genin has reserves large enough to use the shadow clone, that'd be ridiculous."

"Naruto-sama -"

"Was a jinchuuriki, so his chakra reserves were huge even as a genin." After a pause she added, "Don't try to compare yourselves to him - Nanadaime Hokage is a thousand times more powerful than either of you could ever hope to be."

Neither of the boys argued, but Mokuren wasn't the least bit surprised. The way her father told it, Uzumaki Naruto was God to this world now, and even the stupidest of idiots would agree.

With her meetings and such over for the day, Mokuren headed to Gyo Shokudou. Just the outline of the restaurant was enough to drown her in memories, but nearly all of them were pleasant and she couldn't help smiling as she hurried in. As it was midday, the restaurant was very nearly empty, and Reiko, the owner, was napping on a table in the corner by the bathrooms.

"You're going to get robbed someday." Mokuren told her exasperatedly, sliding into the seat across.

"If that happens, I'll just make you go get my money back. You're a ninja now, aren't you?" Reiko mumbled, her head still on the table.

"I am, which means you'd have to request a mission and pay me."

"But I won't be able to pay you, _I'll be broke_."

"That's your problem then, isn't it?"

"Mokurennnnnnn... you're so mean." Reiko complained, finally lifting her head. "I used to give you free food, didn't I?"

"Out of the kindness of your heart, you told me. That means you can't go asking me to pay you back for it." Mokuren pointed out, absently scraping gum off the underside of the table and tossing it into the garbage can across the room.

"Mean mean meanie..." Reiko pouted, and then started as one of her employees giggled. "What are you laughing at?" She snapped over their way, which sent the poor girl scurrying back to the kitchen.

"Somehow, that seemed meaner than me refusing to help with a hypothetical situation."

"Somehow, you sound like a puppet." Reiko retorted, sorting out her dark hair. "Now if you're not going to buy anything, get out - I can't have you loitering around here all day!"

"Fine, fine... I'll go bother Senurou-jii." Mokuren spoke around a small yawn.

"Actually, could you go and see Kamiki-san? She came by here earlier looking for you." Reiko's tone became much more polite and her back straightened as her eyes followed a family entering her restaurant. "Isn't that Suiko or whomever?" She added, looking at a girl around Mokuren's age with golden blonde hair.

"That's Sui-chan." Mokuren agreed. At the moment, Suikana and her family were not really on the list of people that the brunette wanted to talk to, considering that the girl was still visibly upset about her failure on the genin exam. The blonde had always thought herself much better than Mokuren in strength as well as appearance, so Mokuren hoped that the girl hadn't noticed her or her forehead protector. Suikana had never been one to take such things well, and so Mokuren slipped out of the building through a window in the girl's bathroom as soon as she could.

Almost the second Mokuren knocked on the door, Kamiki opened it. The quiet girl looked oddly upset as she let Mokuren in and hurried to get something to drink, but the brunette still took a moment to look around the apartment. She and Kamiki had been friends-of-a-sort since they were about seven years old, but Mokuren still knew next to nothing about the girl. Kamiki had black hair, dark green eyes, and she was an orphan - she didn't really like board games or leaving her house, but Kamiki was enrolled in the ninja academy nonetheless. Mokuren didn't know why, and although she'd been tempted she had never asked.

"You wanted to talk to me about something?" Mokuren started the conversation as she took a glass from Kamiki.

The other girl bit her lip nervously. "Nothing specific." Kamiki's voice was very soft, to the point she could barely be heard. "Just... I wanted to know if you had become a genin. I haven't seen you in quite a while... Clearly you are." She added, her eyes on Mokuren's forehead. "Do you know who your teammates are yet?"

"I met with them today. One has pink-orange hair and a tan, and is constantly yelling something or another. The other boy has black hair and pale skin, and acts rather strange."

"Kenko and Testuen or something similar, right? They're famous for being the most annoying people in our class. I don't think they're really too bad, though." She mumbled the last part while looking down at her lap.

"Most annoying? Then how did I not know them?"

Kamiki coughed a little to hide a slight smile. "I think you were too deeply asleep to really hear them... but, actually - didn't you tell me they had been friends of yours before the Academy?"

Mokuren stared at her blankly.


	3. Team Temari - Teamwork

_**Arc One, Team Temari; Chapter Three, Teamwork**_

Once again, Mokuren awoke from a nightmare around midnight. She had tried taking a pill, in the hopes she could get enough sleep for whatever Temari might have planned, but it seemed that wasn't going to work. Sitting up, she sighed and stretched before standing, wondering how she could be sore when she'd hardly done anything the day before. Going for a walk didn't sound like a great idea just then, so she grabbed a couple of scrolls, set an alarm for 3:30, and climbed onto the roof to read by the moonlight.

All too soon, her alarm rang and she went back inside. After starting the coffee pot, Mokuren put on her clothes and strapped on her weapons pack and sheathed sword. She was a little tempted to wake her mother, if only because it would annoy the woman, but she controlled herself. Since her house was on the outskirts of the residential district, Mokuren didn't really need more than five minutes to reach the twelfth training ground. She left ten minutes early and found that once again, Tetsuko had beaten her there; and once again, he had set a trap for Kentsu. Irritated by this repetitive action, Mokuren dismantled it immediately.

Tetsuko looked a little resentful, but he didn't say anything. When Kentsu finally showed up, however, he had plenty to say. "You're so lazy! Are you trying to be late? Do you want to go back to the Academy?" Tetsuko bellowed at the tanned boy.

"Shut up, moron!" Kentsu immediately replied, his fingers curling to form fists. Tetsuko quickly pulled out a kunai, and Mokuren set her hand on her sword. She didn't really want these two idiots fighting each other today, but perhaps words could handle things.

"Are the two of you really going to fight each other? Temari-sama - I mean, Temari-sensei - could be here any minute."

"Don't interrupt! This has nothing to do with -" Kentsu broke off as the blood suddenly drained from his face. Mokuren had known that the sheer amount of chakra trapped in her father's sword could paralyze civilians, but she hadn't thought it would work quite this well on her teammates. They've _got a lot of training to do._ She sighed to herself. _That hasn't bothered me in almost a year, and yet they can barely turn their heads to look at me._

"You both need to calm down and be quiet. You're teammates now - fighting amongst yourselves is disgraceful." Mokuren informed them, and then sheathed her sword again. A drop of sweat trickled down her forehead, but she doubted the other two would notice it and wiped it away with the guise of massaging her forehead exasperatedly. It took the boys a minute to start moving again, and their first action was to move far away from the girl.

The horizon looked a sickly sort of green by the time Temari arrived - exactly four in the morning. "Good morning," She said without a smile. Her students immediately replied in kind, Kentsu's response punctuated by a yawn. "Today, we'll have a sort of test. In order to effectively train you, I need to see for myself your strengths and weaknesses. For that reason, I want you all to attack me as if you wanted to kill me." Their new teacher declared.

Kentsu and Tetsuko shared an uneasy glance. "W-what are you saying? We can't do that! You're the -"

"Do you two completely lack brains?" Mokuren asked as she took a step towards Temari. "She's a jounin. _My_ best efforts won't be able to touch her - _yours_ won't get anywhere near her. You've got no reason to hesitate." Temari raised an eyebrow at her. Glancing back at the fuming boys, Mokuren shrugged and offered a smile.

Their teacher sighed, and then moved on. "Start!" She declared, and after a brief moment Kentsu barrelled towards her. She didn't even have to move; Kentsu blasted on past her, and made it ten feet before he turned around and tried again. Mokuren couldn't help imagining Temari dressed as a torera sighing and saying, 'Toro, toro...' while yawning.

"You should attack, too." Mokuren told Tetsuko, frowning. She couldn't let her imagination distract her. He jumped slightly, giving her an alarmed look before stepping unsurely towards Temari, who was had only moved a few inches to avoid Kentsu's sloppy moves. Pulling out a kunai, Tetsuko awkwardly tossed it. The handle smacked Kentsu's arm, and he yelped before turning angrily on the black-haired boy. Tetsuko, too busy hiding his blush, stumbled back several feet and fell when Kentsu hits him.

All in all, Mokuren can't help but be disgusted. She still moves to help Tetsuko up and stand between the two boys, however. "Bishou, you're not supposed to attack _Ringo,_ you're supposed to attack _Temari-sensei_." Mokuren scolded Kentsu. Ignoring the confused look on his face, she continued to say in a quieter voice, "The two of you need to cooperate! And practice, too, definitely, but that's later. For now - Bishou, run at her again like you did before but keep an eye out for Ringo's weapons this time. Try to annoy her enough that she'll lower her guard and then I'll go in. Ready? Go."

"I -_ What?_"

"Who are you even talking to?!"

"The two of you, of course." Mokuren replied, not understanding what their problem was.

"Then what's with the smiles and apples?"

Mokuren frowned momentarily. "Well, I can't seem to remember what your names are, so I decided to give you new ones. You are Bishou," she explained, pointing at Kentsu. "And you're Ringo." She told the other boy.

"Our real names are -" Tetsuko tried to offer helpfully.

"Anyway, let's go!" Mokuren intervened. "Bishou, get out there. Ringo, try not to hit him this time."

"Hell no! Shut up... uh..._ era-sou o sage!_" The boy paused briefly to come up with the insult.

Mokuren thought on it for a moment. She couldn't really find it insulting, though - she was a bit condescending and she did wear pigtails. "Do you have another plan, then?"

"Yeah!" He sneered. "_You_ go out there and be the distraction! I'm not some warm-up act!"

"Maaa, you two aren't good enough to help me out anyway. It would be best if I tried alone." Dodging Kentu's sloppy fist and pulling his leg out from under him in the same movement, Mokuren then started towards their teacher, who had been tapping her foot and waiting up til then.

"You're finally going to do something?"

"Sort of." Mokuren sighed, and then ran at Temari, pulling out a kunai. The older woman easily avoided the blade and girl, but looked a little less bored after Mokuren tried a taijutsu move her former tutor had shown her. Temari had dodged that as well, of course, but there were follow-up moves for that, leading up to the use of a minor illusion that_ almost_ tripped Temari up. She'd made the teacher move almost four feet from her original space, though, and Mokuren felt slightly proud of herself. Her angrier teammate, however, looked like he wanted to chop her to pieces.

"A girl is not better than me!" Kentsu barked, mostly to himself. Temari gave him a flat look, but he wasn't paying her any mind as he ran at Mokuren who, once again, knocked him down and kicked him back towards the other boy. Furious at the sight of blood on Kentsu's face, Tetsuko began throwing kunai and shuriken at Mokuren, a few coming close enough that Mokuren actually had to knock them away.

A huge gust of wind sent all three new genin flying, until they smashed into a cliff. Their teacher approached them slowly, each step loud in Mokuren's ears.

"That was dreadful." Temari declared, her eyes flashing angrily. "Unbelievably so. Mokuren - you at least realized that this is meant as an exercise of teamwork. However, you clearly need to work on your communication skills and make a real effort to work with your teammates. Kentsu, Tetsuko - unless you are sparring each other at the request of a higher-ranked ninja, teammates are _never_ allowed to attack one another. I thought that was taught in the Academy, but evidently the two of you were unaware of this and so I'll let it go this time. The next time it happens, I will revoke your genin status."

Mokuren grimaced, sitting up. She couldn't remember being taught such a rule in class, but it seemed like common sense.

"I think that proper communication is the first thing we need to work on. After all, you do need to be able to talk to your teammates without provoking them in order to complete even _D-Rank_ missions. So for the rest of today we'll work on that - if any of you go more than twenty feet away from me, hit one another, push one another, argue or in any way demonstrate dislike towards another teammate before sundown, you will_ all_ be forced to return to the Academy. By the way - because of the nature of this test, even if you fail and are sent back you will be placed together on a team once again, you'll just be someone else's problem." Temari paused for a moment, looking over the boys' aghast faces and Mokuren's grimace before she reinforced her final point. "The three of you will_ have_ to learn how to get along or none of you will _ever_ become shinobi."

The brunette cringed. She could almost hear her aspirations being flushed away. Kentsu and Tetsuko, however, shared fearful looks that soon hardened into determined ones. Kentsu had worked so hard on the basic jutsu over the last few months in order to pass that stupid test, and Tetsuko had spent so many hours exhausting himself in order to bring his taijutsu up; compared to that, how hard could it be to be friendly for a day?

Not that they'd ever tried before.

"Kill me now..." Kentsu moaned as Temari led the way out of a fifth clothing store. He hadn't even known there _was_ more than one clothing store in Suna.

"I can't..." Tetsuko groaned back. "Get off my shoulder." He added to Mokuren, just barely remembering that he couldn't just shove her off.

"Hmm? Are we going back to the Academy yet?" She yawned as she tiredly pulled away. Somehow she had kept pace even while sleeping.

"No, she's enjoying torturing us too much to let us go that easily." Kentsu sighed.

"Common enemy tactic, maybe." Mokuren mused, still half-asleep.

Temari stopped and gave Mokuren an amused glance over her shoulder. "No, that's what I went for _earlier_. This is a little more like a punishment for not taking that seriously. Don't argue," She added as Tetsuko opened his mouth. "I would rather think you weren't taking me seriously, because it's either that or believing that you don't take training seriously." The pale boy's mouth snapped shut immediately, and he turned away as he began to blush. "Hmm, let's see... ah, this store looks interesting."

"... you're joking, right?" Mokuren said, slightly alarmed as she took in the sight of the lingerie store. "They can't go -"

"Oh, I'm sure there's something for the boys to look at." Temari replied, waving off Mokuren's concerns.

"What's the problem? It's just another clothing store right?" Kentsu asked, his expression somewhere between confused and irritated. The girl just grimaced in reply. Mokuren had been in this kind of store before and expected that the two twelve-year-old boys would bleed to death quickly after taking a look around the place, but instead they merely looked puzzled - until they noticed a corset-like... thing on a mannequin, about which they spoke in horrified whispers, wondering why women would want to buy or wear such a thing and speculating how painful it would be if either of them tried it on.

Mokuren shrugged off her confusion. Honestly, she had the same reaction to that kind of clothing. Glancing around, she realized that Temari had disappeared into the changing room - why was there even a changing room in a place like this? - and she couldn't help facepalming. _Temari-sensei's such a weird person... how much time will we have to spend with her, anyway..._

"How does this look?" Temari asked, her voice annoyingly casual as she stepped out for a moment. The man at the register almost instantly passed out, and Mokuren had to stuff something up her nose very quickly to keep herself from following his example...

... but the boys only cried, "Don't walk around in your underwear!" and covered their eyes. Not even a drop of blood from their nostrils.

"I envy your naïvety." Mokuren told the boys solemnly, her voice distorted by her plugged nose.

"We're not naïve!"

"It was an honest compliment." Mokuren reassured Kentsu, not willing to look towards Temari at the moment but hoping that the tanned boy's yell hadn't registered as something they'd be disqualified for.

Luckily, Temari had already returned to the changing rooms and quickly dressed so that the four of them could escort the shopkeep to the hospital. They also checked Mokuren's nose, which had already stopped but had soaked through the paper clog and dripped a little on her shirt before ceasing.

"That was quite fun." Temari remarked. Her true motive for going clothes shopping to start off with was more so that she could calm down rather than to test her students, but she was nonetheless pleased that they were so easily bored into compliance. That wouldn't work for anything above D-Rank, of course, so she'd have to provoke them a bit more. Temari didn't actually want to fail this team; they were brats, but most kids were. They would grow out of it eventually, she knew.

For the remainder of the day, she dragged her students through food markets and even to her former sensei's house for tea - leaving the three standing in the foyer for an hour almost led to several fights, although raising her voice while talking to Baki caused them to shut up immediately. Temari was definitely pleased with her new team's fear of her - whatever the cause - and decided to take them out for dinner. Mokuren, of course, argued for Gyo Shokudou but Temari thought fish would be far too expensive and Mokuren chose not to argue. Instead, they went to a sukiyaki restaurant near the Academy.

Looking over towards the cash register, Mokuren sighed. She was pretty sure the man scolding his employee was Maitsu's father, and wondered absently if he actually owned the place. Maitsu had never talked about her father - or anything about herself, really - but Mokuren knew from interactions with them that the two didn't get along and wanted to know why.

"What are you _staring_ at?" Kentsu asked irritably, interrupting the brunette's train of thought. Temari shot him a look and he bowed his head, returning sheepishly to his food. Mokuren did the same, giving up temporarily on that mystery.

Eating with her team was proving very awkward. Nobody really had anything to say and eating quietly seemed to frustrate Kentsu. Sighing, Temari decided to give conversation a try. "So, do you really like fish, Mokuren? Since you wanted to go to..."

"Mm. I love squid, especially. I won a squid-eating contest once." She added randomly.

"Kentsu got second place in one." Tetsuko offered, although his sulky teammate glared at him for it.

"Really? Where? Is there somewhere that hosts them often? The only one I'd ever heard of was at a party."

"I don't think so, sorry, Kentsu's was at one of Suikana's birthday parties a couple years ago."

"... Was he the guy who choked a little and someone came and hit him?"

Kentu groaned. "I lost that contest to _you?_"

"Watch your tone." Temari reproved him. "The sun hasn't quite set yet, you know." After a few minutes of ringing silence, Temari tried again. "So what are your favorite foods, boys?"

"Falafel." Tetsuko answered, while Kentsu looked at her like she was crazy and repeated, "_Favorite?!_"

Grimacing at the other boy, Tetsuko explained, "I don't think he really pays attention to what he puts in his mouth."

Mokuren sighed and rested her head on the table. "Too bad he's not the main character."

"...What?" Kentsu asked, confused and irritated.

"Main characters in manga about fighting tend to be boys with bottomless pits for stomachs who will eat absolutely anything. However, I'm the main character here."

"Like hell you are!"

"Language." Temari admonished, rolling her eyes at Mokuren's odd statement before glancing out the window to see the sun disappeared behind the cliffs.


	4. Team Temari - Missions

**_Arc One, Team Temari; Chapter Four, Missions_**

"Sweeping is good for character!" The old lady informed the twelve year-old boy. "Besides, a stupid boy like you would not be able to handle a more difficult task as you are now."

Kentsu opened his mouth angrily to argue further, but Mokuren cut him off, hissing, "She's a _client_!" Hopefully, he could still remember what that _meant_. Kentsu's temper had been a definite problem over the last two weeks as Team Temari - with the obvious exception of Temari herself - struggled to complete D-Rank missions. Of course, Mokuren herself had been almost as much trouble... but that was beside the point. And definitely no fault of hers.

... Alright, so she probably should have predicted that the people she'd begged into giving her volunteer work a few years back as part of her training might still be a little annoyed about her sudden disappearance last month, and might even be more irked to find her perfectly okay and part of the genin team they'd hired to temporarily replace her... but she _hadn't_.

Upon hearing of this, Reiko made a point to hire their team for a day at Gyo Shokudou and chew her out, pretending that Mokuren hadn't made a point of explaining herself to her father's old friend. Mokuren didn't appreciate the sadism... or the fact that whenever a client complained about her, Temari refused payment on her team's behalf. Just about any time that Temari wasn't looking, Mokuren's teammates did their best to make her pay for this. Not in money, of course, because she didn't have any either... but anyway.

The two boys were still very weak, but they had improved greatly under Temari's tutelage. Mokuren was generally asked to work by herself on a chakra control exercise - either attempting to walk up a wall or trying to manipulate the chakra of her father's sword, which she had finally been able to show her teacher after two sessions almost entirely focused on her teammates. She understood the need to bring them up to scratch before Team Temari brought its total number of D-Ranks high enough to qualify for a C-Rank, in case something happened, but she still felt a little left out.

On this particular 'mission', they were cleaning up a mess caused by a sandstorm the day before. The protective walls around the village usually kept such storms from affecting anyone, but their client, Ran, lived in the small part of Sunagakure with less protection from such things. As a result, her floors and possessions were covered in a thick layer of sand.

Mokuren had delegated tasks to try and make this mission a success, but Kentsu - as usual - had a problem with his assignment. She didn't know whether he believed he was more graceful than he honestly was or if he was just arguing for the sake of arguing, but the client had been quick to scold him. Luckily, Kentsu did remember what 'client' meant, and sullenly stuck to his assigned job - getting the sand off the floor. Mokuren used a small brush to remove sand from odd knicknacks and valuables, wile Tetsuko set to work uncovering the kitchen. When the latter were done, they set to work on the old lady's books. She practically owned a library, and she was very concerned about possible damage to her precious pages... and although Mokuren was fairly certain that sand couldn't harm them, she kept that to herself.

The mission took only a few hours to complete, although Ran took almost a half hour to scold Kentsu for leaving streaks of sand along the floor. Temari laughed for quite a while about it before leading her team back to the Kazekage Tower to see about taking a second mission for the day. Generally they'd all be taken by now, but Temari still liked to see the bumbling respect the boys paid her brothers.

They were lucky, however - or unlucky, depending on who you asked. There was still one D-Rank left for today.

"You don't know this Karusuke person, right?" Tetsuko double-checked with Mokuren. He was quite frustrated with the lack of payment lately.

"I don't think so." She shrugged. She'd never been very good with names, so she couldn't say for sure, but Mokuren hoped he wasn't someone she'd worked for. As it turned out, he was. However, instead of being angry, Karuru - as he had introduced himself when they first met, when he was just fourteen years old and she was seven - apologized himself. Apparently, he had closed down his pottery business the same day she'd quit working for everyone, and had worried a little about where she'd get money - he was quite pleased to hear she'd become a genin, as well.

Karuru was pretty strange, for a civilian. He'd inherited quite a lot of money from his great uncle and used it to pay for his strange and often-changing hobbies, which generally led to him buying out a business only to give it back a month later when he lost interest. A lot of people viewed him as a spoiled brat, and he kind of was, but Mokuren liked the enthusiasm he put into whatever he did and couldn't help but imagine that her father would have gotten along well with Karuru. As far as this mission went, he had bought a greenhouse because of a sudden interest in gardening but the workers quit after a disagreement about something Karuru wouldn't explain and although he'd been trying to maintain it by himself since then, things were beginning to die. It only took an hour to remove all of the weeds Karuru hadn't noticed and adjust the humidity and temperature to better suit the plants, and he was delighted enough at the speed to pay extra. This was highly unneccessary considering that he'd already been paying too much for a D-Rank mission, but Team Temari didn't mind a bit. Their sensei normally took them out to eat at some cheap diner for dinner if they'd gotten two missions in a day, but this time she agreed to go to Gyo Shokudou.

Mokuren was especially pleased by this treat. She'd made time to go in and visit Reiko every few days, of course, but she hadn't had enough money to buy something in ages. However, sitting at the same table she and her father had always sat at, ordering the same food she always did... Mokuren couldn't help but tear up a little.

"What are you crying about?" Kentsu asked irritably.

She blinked, and then stared at him with her eyes as wide as they would go. "What am I crying about? What do you think I'm crying about? Have you even tasted this food? It's heaven-sent!"

"I'll make sure to tell the cook." One of the waitresses, Anrei, chuckled as she walked by.

"Make sure you do!" Mokuren yelled after her. She took another bite, sighed deeply, and allowed a dreamy expression to form on her face. When she saw Kentsu and Tetsuko's incredulous looks, she tilted her head and frowned at them. "You two are so weird."

"_You're_ the weird one!"


	5. Team Temari - Change in Nature

_**Arc One, Team Temari; Chapter Five, Change in Nature**_

"Today, we're going to do something a bit different."

"If this is a paper test..." Tetsuko began apprehensively, looking nervously at the small piece of paper Temari had just given him. After two months of working together, his teacher surely knew how he felt about schoolwork and tests. He still complained about them a few times a week, after all!

Temari smirked. "It's not exactly a normal paper test... don't worry, you _can't_ fail it."

"And the Titanic couldn't sink." Kentsu grumbled, examining the blank square.

Mokuren just sighed. She wasn't entirely sure what the paper was for, but she wished Temari would just explain it already. Having a session in which all three trained together was nice and all, but she doubted it would be very productive. Although the three genin got along a great deal better now than they had when they first became a team, Kentsu still had issues with a girl his age being stronger than him. Thanks to that, it was quite difficult for him to train if she was around because he seemed to think she was always laughing at him. Mokuren actually had laughed the first couple of times, though, so she supposed she was partially to blame for the paranoia. It was such a pity that Kentsu happened to be one of those people who became _worse_ at things when they were angry, despite Mokuren's occasional attempts to teach him how to use his anger as fuel rather than letting it blind him - or perhaps, in spite of those lessons. He refused to listen to most of what she said, actually, partially because she still called him Bishou and partially because his pride wouldn't allow him to do anything she asked easily.

Still, they really were getting closer. Although he was still a stubborn prideful idiot a lot of the time, in casual situations or even on missions he sometimes smiled or joked or listened to information she offered. In return, Mokuren made an effort not to voice every contradiction she heard in his statements. It was about the best she could manage.

As far as training went, though, the rift between the two generally had to be bridged by Tetsuko. The boy had a certain amount of pride as well, but he made much more of an effort to put up with Mokuren and quit trying to provoke Kentsu. At first, though, this had made things a bit worse with Kentsu feeling like he had to share the person who had almost always been his best friend and rival. It had taken quite a bit of work to convince Kentsu that he had to accept that change, but eventually he had come around.

Actually, if Mokuren had to say that one person in particular was the worst at working with the others it would be herself. The boys had improved, definitely, but she sometimes caught herself thinking that they were going to drag her down later. Whenever this happened, Mokuren reminded herself that becoming egotistical certainly wouldn't help her achieve her goals. They would improve more and more in the future to become people she could rely on, surely, and she had to work harder herself rather than be content with her current level.

"Pool your chakra in the hand that's holding the paper." Temari instructed.

"What if I'm holding it with both hands?" Tetsuko fretted. Mokuren's eye twitched, and although she wanted badly to hit him she didn't.

"Then take one hand away so that you can focus your chakra to the one hand." Temari spoke slowly, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Um, okay, but how do I -" Tetsuko began to ask another question, but was interrupted as Kentsu suddenly yelped, dropped to the ground and began rolling.

"What the - _what did you do_?" Temari asked, exasperated as she watched Kentsu.

"What you told me to!" He yelled back, still rolling. "It _lit. _Itself. On_. Fire_!"

"I think it's supposed to do that." Mokuren remarked, looking down at the half of her page that had suddenly torn away and fallen.

Temari nodded her agreement. "Yes - that's chakra paper, and -"

"You knew it would light me on fire and you didn't warn me first?!" Kentsu barked as he sprang up, the fire finally out, but at Temari's furious glare he closed his mouth tightly.

"I didn't know it would start on fire, necessarily, no. This paper is designed to react to chakra in one of five ways, depending on the elemental affinity of the person whose chakra is placed on it. Apparently, your affinity is fire, and Mokuren's is wind. Tetsuko... why haven't you put chakra on your page yet?"

"How do I put chakra on it?" He asked, taking a step back when Temari scowled at him.

"Set it on the ground and then pool chakra in your feet like for the wall-climbing exercise. Carefully step on it after that." Mokuren intervened.

Tetsuko did as she'd suggested, and when the ball of his foot touched the page it split in two. "So I'm wind, too?"

"Yes." Temari nodded, still looking irritated.

After waiting a moment and hearing no more instruction, Mokuren couldn't help but ask, "So, are we going to learn techniques for our affinities now?"

"No, first you have to master the ability to change your chakra's nature. It takes a very long time to do so, and so I'd like the three of you to try and cut - or in Kentsu's case, burn - normal pages a few times a day. Normal chakra shouldn't have much of an effect, so you'll have to work out how to transform your chakra on your own in order to cut them. When you can manage to do so each time you try, then come and tell me. I'll then set you a new exercise, and only after _that's_ been mastered will we discuss techniques."

"But-"

"No." Temari interrupted Kentsu. "No arguments. Just... practice that later. For now, we're going to spar."

"So, I should go work on..?"

Temari shook her head. "No, not this time, Mokuren. I want you and Kentsu to fight first."

"... you're kidding."

"I'm entirely serious."

Glancing at Kentsu, Mokuren noticed that he seemed frozen in place, a strange expression stuck on his face. "Well, let's get on with it then. How much do I need to hold back this time?" Mokuren asked teasingly. As expected, that snapped him out of his daze and angered him right away. He still didn't say anything, though, and just took his stance. She was a little impressed that he hadn't said anything - it suggested that he intended to prove himself with actions instead.

Their last spar had been quite different. Kentsu had started out ranting and raving, and had gotten increasingly angrier as Mokuren easily avoided everything he tried without ever really attacking back. He eventually wore himself out and tripped over his own feet, hitting his head so hard he lost consciousness. Tetsuko hadn't been able to watch the humiliation, and even Temari had considered stopping it. The only thing Mokuren had liked about that fight was that Kentsu hadn't give up the moment he'd realized it was futile... but then, that just seemed to be his pride in the way again.

Anyway, she had higher hopes for this fight. Even though he was clearly irritated by what she'd said, his chakra wasn't fluctuating like it often did; perhaps he'd finally gotten control of his temper. When Temari asked them to start, he didn't immediately run at her like a bull in a ring. Deciding to take this more seriously, Mokuren didn't simply wait for him. They clashed halfway, and although Mokuren sent him flying it had taken more effort than she'd expected, and he got back up quickly to try again. Mokuren couldn't help but be impressed by the amount of time Temari must have spent dealing with Kentsu in order to bring his skills up so quickly, and said so aloud; Kentsu took it as an insult. The next time she tossed him out, she decided to try adding a twist or two to this little test and made a quick handsign.

On the sidelines, Tetsuko frowned. The ram seal could be used for a lot of different techniques, and if that was the only seal she had to form then this must be either a pathetic jutsu or something she had practiced with very often. This time, when Kentsu closed in, Mokuren moved much faster than before but dodged rather than hit or block any of his attacks. Kentsu didn't seem to have noticed the change, and just continued to punch and kick, pushing her back several feet, until he suddenly landed a hit. He stumbled back in surprise as Mokuren disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving a training post in her place.

"The heck?" Kentsu blurted out. 'Why kawarimi? It's a stupid E-rank jutsu...' Looking around, he realized that he couldn't see where Mokuren had gone off to. Actually, he couldn't remember a training post quite like this one anywhere around here... his train of thought was interrupted by a sharp yank on his ankle that caused him to fall face first to the sand. For a brief second, he panicked, trying to figure out why the zombie apocolapse was beginning here and now, in the middle of a fight, before he realized that it had just been his teammate.

Mokuren spat out the sediments she had accidentally inhaled when she reappeared underground and rubbed her eyes. It'd been rather lucky for her strategy that the training field Temari had picked was the same one she had used when she was younger, before it was buried during a freak sandstorm that had somehow made its way over the walls of Sunagakure no Sato.

As he scrambled onto his feet again, coughing, Kentsu felt frustrated. They were genin now, weren't they? Using E-rank jutsu was just lame, but he didn't know anything better. Why hadn't Temari taught them some jutsu? Instead she'd been focusing on taijutsu and although there had been a few chakra control exercises she'd never taught a single technique! And there was no way he could use illusionary bunshin or henge in a situation like this; it was amazing enough that Mokuren had managed to use kawarimi in a decent way. There weren't any hiding places or useful items on the blank field, and he knew that Mokuren had been given many private lessons - she probably already knew more advanced jutsu, and using kawarimi might have been her way of warning him that this wasn't going to be just taijutsu any more. What to do... while Kentsu pondered, Mokuren waited.

His eyes wandered over to Tetsuko and he suddenly remembered something his friend had looked into, once - he hadn't been able to pull it off at that time, and Kentsu wasn't very good with this sort of thing still... but he had to prove he'd gotten better, prove that he wasn't as pathetic as he'd been before.

The way his mother had neatly arranged the kunai in his weapons pouch made it easy to string them together the way he needed them. There were many things that could mess this up, Kentsu knew. The sand wasn't exactly solid but there were few other surfaces he could use... Deciding that he had to give this a try, definitely, but also quite certain this was a stupid idea, Kentsu closed his eyes before he threw them with all his might. To his surprise, it almost-sorta-if-you-tilted-your-head-the-right-way looked like he'd done it correctly. The nine spaces between the wires weren't square - like, at all - but they would suit the purpose, right?

"What's this supposed to do?" Mokuren asked, slightly interested. She hoped Kentsu actually had some sort of plan to go along with setting up wires, but experience suggested otherwise. After examining his work for a couple seconds, Kentsu leapt at her again. Avoiding getting tangled in the wire wasn't too big of a problem, although it was troublesome to have to worry about where she stepped or how she turned. Suddenly, she noticed a flash of light - it distracted her enough that her guard dropped, but she made the ram seal as his fist approached her face... and in a poof of smoke, a training post appeared.

Kentsu cursed. He'd really hoped that the invisible trip wire amongst the others would get her and he could beat her fair and square, but apparently she wasn't yet bored of kawarimi. He heard the sound of a technique activating and spun around to see five of Mokuren, two of which were smirking and three of which appeared tired.

He stumbled back, cutting the back of his feet slightly against a wire._ Are these kage bunshin?!_ Kentsu panicked internally. _No, she said that that required more chakra than a genin could use... and era-sou o sage wouldn't prove herself wrong..! Right?_

The clones took up weapons suddenly and threw them. Kentsu dodged instinctively, but three of them grazed him, and he was certain they had come from different clones. _The weapons are solid - then, they really are..!_ Taking steps back over the wire, he pressed his back against the training post and pulled out a kunai. Hopefully, he could knock away the next ones... but just as they were preparing themselves, smirks wider than ever on their faces, a gust of wind suddenly blew sand _through_ the clones. _They're illusionary?! But then, how -?_

A blade suddenly pressed itself to his throat, causing Kentsu to freeze. "I win." Mokuren declared from behind him, and then released him. He spun around to face her, confusion clear on his face. "It's kind of neat how the ram seal works for both kawarimi and henge, ne Bishou?" Too late, he saw that the training post she'd used earlier was still where she had left it back then.

"But - the clones..?"

"The kunai were on wires." She explained.

"Why didn't you use anything new?!" Kentsu demanded to know once he had accepted that. "Why did you bring ninjutsu into this at all?!"

"I overheard you tell Tetsuko that the jutsu we learned at the Academy were all useless and impractical, so I thought this might be a good opportunity to show you otherwise." Mokuren shrugged. "And as for why I used ninjutsu at all, I suppose I was getting bored of kicking and blocking and punching - I needed something to make the spar less... boring."

Being the person that he was, Kentsu somehow heard that explanation as: "I felt like proving you wrong and being a bossy know-it-all while I was at it, and anyway, I needed something to keep me from falling asleep because you're _so_ pathetic at fighting I was beginning to nod off." And that was completely unacceptable.

"I'm not pathetic!" He snarled, hands curling into fists

"I didn't say you were. Calm down a little, will you? Spar's over, you'll get in trouble for fighting me now."

Kentsu seethed internally, and was too busy plotting his revenge inside of his head to hear when Temari told him to clean up the area. Rolling his eyes, Tetsuko set to the task instead. He was rather glad that his friend hadn't been humiliated again, but he also felt uneasy, somehow.


	6. Team Temari - Ramen Ichiraku

**_Arc One, Team Temari; Chapter Six, Ramen Ichiraku_**

Three months now, they'd been together. Still, the boys had yet to work out change in chakra nature and now that the three always trained together, Mokuren couldn't help but feel that she wasn't getting any stronger. They had almost completed the required eighty D-ranks - just eleven more, if Mokuren had counted them correctly, and they would be allowed a C-rank.

"We've done a million D-ranks already, give us a C-rank!" Kentsu whined. Apparently, he hadn't been keeping good count, because he'd been trying to insist they had eighty already for the last few weeks.

Tetsuko scowled at his teammate. "We haven't done nearly enough to qualify yet, and anyway you should _speak-more-respectfully-he's-the-Kazekage!_" He hissed out the last part through gritted teeth. He hadn't been counting either, Mokuren noted.

"But these missions are so boring! Why are they even called missions? Civilians could do this stuff easily! Heck, you could have _Academy students_ work on it instead of us." He continued to grumble, but paled suddenly when the Kazekage looked directly at him. Temari nearly snickered - it hadn't been all that long ago that the boy's voice had grated her ears. Somehow, though, she'd adjusted.

"You would like a mission that holds more meaning?"

"W-well, yeah."

Temari frowned at her brother. Her team still needed a couple more weeks' worth of D-ranks, he wasn't going to go ahead and give them a C-rank mission, was he?

"It's still a D-rank, but perhaps you would like this better." The Kazekage said, moving stacks of paper around. When he finally lifted a page, Temari could see the Hokage's sloppily written signature across the bottom. It looked a great deal more like a letter than a mission request, but her boys could see the signature as well and they were too stunned to pay attention to anything else.

"A request from the _Hokage_?" Tetsuko sputtered.

"No way!" Kentsu shouted, looking positively ecstatic. "What's the mission?!"

"Helping to set up a branch of Ramen Ichiraku in Sunagakure." Temari replied, taking the letter her brother offered.

Mokuren raised her eyebrows sceptically. "The Hokage himself made a request for ninja to help set up a ramen stand?"

"Don't say it like that! Don't you know, the Hokage _loves_ ramen!"

"Hey, hey! If he's requesting ninja than maybe it's his favorite restaurant!"

Mokuren watched disbelievingly as her teammates descended into giggling maniacs who seemed to think that they'd been given an insanely important mission that could damage the Suna-Konoha alliance if they screwed it up.

"The Hokage_ isn't_ going to start the_ Fifth Shinobi War _over_ RAMEN_." She finally snapped. Temari was snickering somewhere behind her, while Kankuro seemed to be choking. Even the Kazekage was smiling at the boys' insanity and Mokuren seemed to be the only one exasperated. Both boys pouted at her, though, and she felt a little guilty.

"Well, I mean, he obviously won't start a war but this is still really important!" Tetsuko insisted, still pouting.

"Yeah!" Kentsu backed him up.

"Are you his sidekick now?" Mokuren asked the salmon-haired boy irritably.

"Wha- no!" Kentsu yelled back, startled. "If anybody's a sidekick, it's him!"

"I'm not your sidekick!" Tetsuko wrinkled his nose at the very idea, and a fierce argument commenced.

An hour later found the three standing in front of an empty wooden building, one of the few standing in Suna. A brown-haired woman stood outside waiting for them.

"My name is Ayame. It's nice to meet you all." She introduced herself with a warm smile.

Mokuren smiled back. Temari had claimed she had something important she needed to work on and had left Mokuren in charge, so the brunette supposed that introducing the team was her job. "My name is Mokuren, and these two are Bishou," She gestured at Kentsu, "and Ringo." Mokuren then pointed at Tetsuko. "We're glad to meet you as well." She told Ayame, and frowned a moment later when she noticed that Kentsu was growling at her.

"They've got strange names, don't they?" Ayame giggled. "They're nice though, I suppose. So, if you're all ready to work..?"

"Of course, just tell us what to do!" Mokuren said brightly, and followed Ayame around the back of the building, leaving the annoyed boys behind.

"Why can't you call us by our real names?" Tetsuko demanded an hour later. He would have asked sooner, but Ayame had kept them busy moving boxes, unpacking supplies and now they were washing the pots, pans, and counters. Mokuren had spent much of that time chatting with Ayame while the two checked against a list to make sure nothing had been lost or forgotten during the trip.

"What do you mean?" Was Mokuren's innocent-sounding reply.

He scowled. "I _know_ that you know my name isn't Ringo. Don't look so confused, I've told you a million times! MY. NAME. IS. TE-"

"Ringo-kun, a boy should never raise his voice when speaking to a lady!" Ayame admonished him, evidently having ignored his words completely to focus on the volume. Mokuren couldn't help grinning at the fuming boy.

It was late afternoon by the time everything had been unpacked and cleaned. There wasn't any actual food in there right then, but everything else was ready for opening day. "Thank you all so much for your help." Ayame told them, and looked about ready to say her goodbyes when Kentsu suddenly blurted out,

"Is Ichiraku really the Hokage's favorite restaurant?"

Ayame's face split into a huge grin and she nodded. "You're fans of Naruto-kun's?"

Tetsuko stared. Ayame had used such a familar honorific. And she'd called his hero by his first name. "_How well do you know him?!_"

"Well, Ichiraku has been his favorite restaurant ever since he was a little kid, and up until a few years ago the only people who worked there were my father and I. I'd say I know him pretty well." Ayame seemed to be enjoying the awestruck looks on Tetsuko and Kentsu's faces.

"Can you tell us something about him?" Mokuren asked hesitantly. She felt sort of stalkerish asking, but how many times in one's life did such an opportunity present itself?

Ayame indulged them, sitting them down and telling them stories from the Hokage's youth. She had so many things to tell them that the sky was definitely dark by the time Temari showed up to ask why they hadn't reported in yet. The most striking thing about the stories were that they contrasted with what Mokuren's father had told her about the great Uzumaki Naruto's battles and moving words of peace. In Ayame's stories, the Hokage had been an absolute brat, rude and brash and idiotic. There were many times when Mokuren felt torn between covering her ears and yelling, "Blasphemy!" and leaning in closer to better hear the details. As Temari led them away, the boys were practically skipping. Mokuren fell back a little, unsure how she felt upon comparing Ayame's stories in more depth against her father's.


	7. Lost Mission - The Well

_**Arc Two, Lost Mission; Chapter One, The Well**_

"Aren't C-Ranks supposed to be better than D-Ranks?" Tetsuko dully complained. They had just arrived in the town the request had come from and dropped off the supplies they'd been asked to bring. Somehow, the town's well had dried up a couple of days previous and they were quick to ask Suna for help. Since there hadn't been any sightings of missing nin or bandits in the area, the Kazekage had sent Temari's team to investigate the dry well and give the people water, sealed safely away in scrolls.

Initially, Kentsu and Tetsuko had been absolutely thrilled. None of the genin had ever gone more than a mile past Suna's protective cliffs and they couldn't wait to see the world beyond. It took only an hour of sand dune after sand dune after sand dune after sand dune for their enthusiasm to wane, however.

When they arrived around dusk, they found that the town was equally as much of a buzzkill. Its buildings had been built of the same materials in the same style as in Suna, with the only real noticable difference being how small this place was and its lack of cliffs. After turning the water over to the legal authorities - they weren't exactly ninja, but they were stronger than the genin, certainly - a tall and grumpy blonde led them to the town's well, where a couple of strangers helped to lower first Temari, then Mokuren, and finally the blonde woman. The tunnel was completely dry, and at the bottom there was an intersection with a horizontal tunnel coated in cracked sand, the sort that one found right after a flash flood. "This was an ancient river that has flowed underground through this area for as long as anyone could remember. I don't believe it dried up naturally." She told them.

Temari nodded and followed her along the tunnel. It narrowed as they continued through, forcing them to leave their guide as they began to crawl. Eventually it became too small a gap and the two crawled backwards until they reached the blonde, who had waited impatiently and was very cross when they had no explanation to offer.

The town's leader hadn't expected them to find the problem immediately, however, and had made arrangements for the four of them. Tetsuko complained about the beds, but Kentsu was out the second his head hit the pillow.

The next morning the team mostly split up. Temari was going to hear more detail on how and when the water had disappeared and gave them the morning to themselves while she did so. Mokuren took the oppurtunity to explore.

Dressed in a long robe - one of Kentsu's, but he hadn't noticed the theft - she left her hitae-ate in the room she was sharing with Temari and headed out. After about an hour, she found a nice little restaurant. An elderly lady waved her towards a table, too busy writing something on the counter to even look up.

Mokuren consequently seated herself and thought for a moment about what she wanted, but was soon enough interrupted by the shattering of a glass. She leapt up to see that the old lady was staring at her, ashen-faced.

"Mei?" She croaked, and tears began to slide along the wrinkle lines on her face.

Mokuren relaxed her stance, but continued to watch the woman warily. "My name isn't Mei."

The woman's eyes widened and she hurriedly wiped away her tears. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." She whispered. "You just... You look like someone I used to know."

Mokuren noted the past tense. "I'm sorry to bring up something you're uncomfortable remembering. I can leave..." She spoke sincerely enough. Briefly she imagined running into a lookalike of someone she'd lost and her chest constricted painfully.

"No, its fine. You're fine. It was just a shock." She explained, her voice quivering slightly, and the subject was dropped. The woman still seemed to be avoiding looking at her when Mokuren paid the bill for her meal.

As she stepped out onto the street, she could hear arguing nearby. Curious, she closed in on the voices until they were just around the corner.

"But I just don't have that kind of money!" A woman was protesting.

There was a snort."I'm not lowering the price just because you can't afford it."

"But, my children..!?"

"Do you know how many times I've heard that from women today? It's annoying! If you want your children to live, then find a way to get that money for them!"

"A-alright..."

That certainly sounded suspicious. When the woman made to pass an alleyway two minutes later, Mokuren pulled her in for a chat.

On the other side of town, people grouped along the side of a street, nervously watching the two boys bearing Sunagakure no Sato hitae-ate.

"If they learn about Dorin-sama's..."

" -gakure might ban us from using it?!"

"They're just children..."

"Don't look them in the eyes..."

Kentsu and Tetsuko heard none of these whispers. They'd worn their forehead protectors because it hadn't occurred to them not to - why wouldn't they, after all? They had no idea that they would interfere with their plans for the day; namely, trying to find out who would want to dry the well and why.

"Where should we look first?" Kentsu mused.

"We've been going nowhere?!" Tetsuko asked, exasperated. They'd been walking for ten minutes already. "I thought you said you knew what you were doing!"

"I will know, once we've gotten a lead!" Kentsu insisted. "So you're in charge of that part."

"I thought you had a lead already!"

"How about that alley?" Kentsu asked with a frown, pointing it out.

"Don't ignore me!" Tetsuko squawked at him, flapping his arms for added effect. They searched various alleyways and places, not really sure what they were even looking for, until they were both very hungry. At that point they gave up - temporarily! - to look for lunch instead. They noticed a very busy restaurant and approached it, but the man at the door turned them away, saying apologetically, "The restaurant will close in fifteen minutes. There would not be enough time for you to finish a meal."

"What?" Kentsu asked disbelievingly. He could clearly see on the doors what the closing times were and he was absolutely certain that it was nowhere near that time yet.

Noticing where the boy's black eyes had wandered to, the man by the door gulped audibly. "Ah, today's a holiday, so we close earlier for it."

"Today's not a-"

"Yes it is." Tetsuko whispered. "Today's the Daimyo's birthday."

Kentsu made a face, kicked sand at the man by the door - who was an absolutely awful liar! - and then walked off to find a nicer place. When he thought he'd found one, a pale, sweating boy around their age moved in his way and claimed with a shaky voice that the restaurant was completely full and reserved for the next couple of hours. When Kentsu confronted this boy about the Daimyo's birthday, the boy burst into tears, sobbing angrily about straws or something, and Tetsuko dragged Kentsu away hurriedly before he could cause a bigger scene.

"We don't really need food, do we?" The black-haired boy said weakly, his stomach growling fiercely. The sound was barely quieter despite the hands Tetsuko was using to apply pressure on it.

Kentsu gave him an exasperated look. "We need to try somewhere smaller." He decided, and after the third time someone turned them away after they'd walked in, they finally found one that would give them food. Just in time, too, because Tetsuko was nearly crawling by this point. The food was burnt and the old lady in charge glared at them throughout the meal, but they were too relieved to care. They began their search again, fervor restored.

After a few minutes, Tetsuko suddenly stopped and pressed himself against a wall beside an alleyway. "There's someone with a bunch of barrels." He explained almost silently. Kentsu nodded.

"You got the money?" A boy's voice asked.

"Y-yes, right here..."

"None of this is fake? You're not a setup from those shinobi I saw walking around today?"

"No! Of course not!" The woman's voice denied, still sounding fearful.

"Alright then. This amount of money will get you a couple barrels of water. How did you manage to -?"

At the word 'water', Kentsu ran around the corner, ignoring Tetsuko's warning as he kicked the strange teen into a wall. The teenager's cropped hair was brown, and his eyes were a surprising light blue. He was fairly tall but thin, with skin just a little lighter than Kentsu's own, and he coughed up a few drops of blood as he tried to get up. Kentsu pinned him down. "Where did you get this water?" He demanded.

"Please, let go of me!" The brunet begged, wriggling around a bit.

"Where?" Kentsu repeated, holding back a blush with some difficulty.

"The man I work for, Dorin-sama, he keeps a hundred full barrels at his estate for times like these." The explanation was hurried, and even the older teen seemed to be blushing awkwardly. Unnoticed by either, the woman standing off to the side smiled dreamily and clapped once.

"Why are you selling them, then?" Tetsuko asked, feeling slightly disgruntled.

"The town needed water, too!" He explained.

"Then shouldn't you have given away the water for free?" Kentsu argued.

The teenager's eyes teared up. "I'm going to get fired for this." The boys assumed he meant selling the water. "Obaachan relies on me... I need to have some way of paying for food, for the two of us."

After a quick shared glance with Tetsuko, Kentsu asked, "What's your name?"

"Eiro." Was the answer.

Kentsu backed away, stood up and offered a hand. "Sorry about hurting you, I thought you might have been the guy who drained the well."

"Forgive me... you were _right_." Eiro said in return, forming a one-handed seal as Kentsu helped him up.

"... huh?"

And in a blink, Kentsu's back was against a wall, his wrists trapped by cuffs made of rock and a kunai at his throat. "If you move an inch, I'll kill him." The brunet told Tetsuko. He seemed emotionless now. "How many of you are -" He was interrupted when he suddenly flew sideways, towards Tetsuko. The woman who'd hit him disappeared in a poof of smoke, replaced by a familiar figure who walked forward and lifted Eiro a few inches by his lapel.

"Would you like to tell me the real truth?" Mokuren yawned, using her free hand to cover her mouth. When the boy merely squawked incoherently, she shrugged and dropped him, hitting the base of his neck quickly before throwing his unconscious body over her shoulder. She walked out of the alleyway and then turned, frowning at her teammates. "Are you two coming or not?"

"I'm stuck to a wall!" Kentsu barked at her.

She sighed and shook her head before walking back and making a couple hand signs as she positioned herself by the wall. "Fuuton: Daitoppa!" She declared, and a gust of wind snapped the cuffs and smacked Kentsu into a wall. Turning to her other teammate, Mokuren said, "Can you carry him? My hands are full."

"I don't need carrying!" Kentsu argued, trying to pull himself back up. Tetsuko rolled his eyes and walked over to help.

Temari was smiling strangely when she re-entered the room. Her team stood up, eager to hear what she'd learned. It had been almost an hour since Mokuren had dropped Eiro in front of her sensei and she'd taken him for questioning. "This guy is a nukenin." She began. "A Doton user who quit because the chunin exams were too hard, apparently. He's from one of the minor ninja villages and was paid by the local lord, Dorin, to redirect the local well onto his property and help sell the water to villagers because he is convinced they are refusing higher taxes while hiding fortunes from him and... mocking him, somehow? Dorin sounds a bit paranoid, really." Temari sighed, moving a stray hair away from her eyes. "However, as far as the Doton user knows, Dorin has not hired any other ninja. I'm going to go over by myself and arrest him, you should repack anything you've unpacked and pay anyone you've robbed." She dismissed them, walking off.

"Why does she think we've stolen things?"

Mokuren figured this wouldn't be the best time to mention her new earrings. "Temari-sensei didn't get much sleep last night, so she's a bit off."

"Did she find a spider?"

"No, she found a pea."

They looked at her blankly. Mokuren sighed. "Did you never read fairy tales?"

"What do fairy tales have to do with anything!?" Kentsu snapped, annoyed with Mokuren's roundabout ways.

Mokuren stretched, popping her back. Tetsuko wrinkled his nose in annoyance. "It's nice to be out amidst sand again, isn't it, boys?"

"No." They chorused - all three of them, because Mokuren knew they'd say that.

"Jinx, you owe me a day without complaints." She smirked.

They glared at her in reply, but Temari at least found it amusing. Her chortling stopped suddenly though, and the two girls instantly dropped into stances.

"What's going on?" Tetsuko asked immediately, while Kentsu copied the girls and began looking around nervously.

"Fifteen." Temari muttered. "That noise..."

"Will someone tell me -!?"

"We're surrounded." Mokuren told him. The bandits came all at once, although Temari was able to blow them away before they reached any of them.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" Temari activated the summoning technique and a large white weasel appeared. Mokuren knew him to be Kamatari, but her teammates had not met the summon before. This attack was not as a wave, and this time even with Kamatari a few of bandits made it to the genin. Mokuren kicked one away and barely managed to block a kunai from reaching Kentsu, who was fighting the third bandit. Tetsuko stood frozen, and Mokuren exasperatedly chucked a kunai by his foot. It snapped him out of it, but she still needed to interfere twice more while he fought.

Because of the situation, none of them realized until it was a little late that a roaring sound had slowly built up all the while. The moment the cause of the sound became visible, the bandits pulled away. Mokuren's eyes followed theirs; seeing the cloud of yellow growing on the horizon... she froze.


	8. Lost Mission - On Our Own

_**Arc Two, Lost Mission; Chapter Two, On Our Own**_

Temari barked an order, and although Mokuren couldn't hear what exactly it was it brought her back. There wasn't any time to hide; Mokuren threw her arms around Kentsu and Tetsuko and held them together, hoping to keep the wind and sand from pulling them apart. "Keep your eyes and mouths closed!" She ordered, but she wasn't sure either of them heard her. When the wave of sand hit, she thought she heard Temari cry out and sensed her chakra signature getting farther and farther away. Every inch of exposed skin - on Mokuren's face, neck, arms ankles - felt like it was on fire. Desperately ignoring the pain, she tightened her grip on the boys and tried to focus chakra to her skin in order to strengthen it. She'd heard stories of people who had been flayed by sandstorms and bled to death - doing her best to keep chakra around her skin, Mokuren tried to mentally step away from the situation and the pain. _This can't last too long... can it? How long do sandstorms last, anyway? _She didn't know, though. The sand whipping around her was incredibly loud but not particularly distracting. _Ringo and Bishou always wear heavy clothing, why don't I do that? Sure this outfit is easier to fight in, but the sand's shredding it like rice paper. I hope they can breathe okay._ Her thoughts were scattered, but she couldn't disassociate herself. Her lungs were beginning to burn with all of the sand forcing its way through her nose with every breathe she took. She took much of the chakra protecting her skin and redirected it to try and reinforce her lungs.

She couldn't tell if it had been a year or half an hour, but eventually the force at her back faded away. Sand began to fall after hitting her, quickly forming a pile. By the time it finally stopped, she was up to her waist in sand. Mokuren couldn't gather up enough strength to try and push her way out - instead, once she'd decided the worst was definitely over, she released her brothers and fell back, pushing the pile out behind her like a cushion. It wasn't comfortable at all, and her body was still aflame, but she didn't care. After blinking away sand and salty tears, she could see what she supposed must be her arms. They were vividly red, spreading their color around the sand on which they lay. The boys had fallen, too, but their figures were so blurry and her head was pounding and her ears still ringing and she just couldn't tell if they were alright or not until she closed her eyes again and felt for their chakra. Their reserves were considerably lower than normal, but definitely still present...

When next she woke, it took her a minute to recall and another to understand what had happened. Everything still burned and ached and she could barely breathe, and she could feel dried trails of sandy snot across her face. Tetsuko was sitting nearby, and Kentsu was perhaps twenty feet away. They both seemed pretty well off... Her own chakra reserves had refilled as well; just how long had she been out?

Not long enough, apparently, because when she tried to bring her hand up to wipe away whatever was keeping her from opening her eyes her arm didn't so much as twitch. When she tried to clear her throat to talk, the sudden wave of pain was enough to knock her unconscious.

The next time she woke, she was a little better off. Her arm moved and her eyes opened, anyway, but she couldn't sit up or move her legs. It was very dark, and she realized that she was in a tent. _But all of our supplies were with Temari..._ She frowned mentally, but filed that mystery away for later. "Ringo?" She rasped.

"You're awake!" The boy exclaimed in response sounding tearful, waking up Kentsu.

"Are you sure she isn't just coughing again?" He mumbled, but the hopefulness in his voice contradicted his words.

"Awake." She answered, and then suddenly coughed. It hurt like hell, and she thought she could see dark spots on the ground beside her. "Clean... nose?" She tried to ask, confused when she realized that the snotty trails she'd felt before weren't there.

"Told you she'd appreciate it." Tetsuko laughed, but it sounded like he was still crying.

"It was still _gross_." Kentsu replied, sounding much more relieved than disgusted.

"Clothes?" Mokuren interrupted their argument to check.

"We didn't look or anything!" Tetsuko immediately defended himself. If she hadn't been sure it would hurt, she would have laughed at him.

"Kay." She said instead. "Night." Giving up on the struggle to say awake, she let her eyesight fill with purple snow. Mokuren could vaguely heard Kentsu's voice, but she couldn't make out the words.

Waking was much easier the third time around. It probably helped that she could sense a chakra signature not too far away that felt absolutely nothing like anyone she knew,_ right_-right next to Tetsuko and a few feet away from Kentsu, and instinctively jumped up and reached for a kunai. The pain caused her to stagger, but she didn't fall, and was a little more annoyed about the fact she was wearing only her underwear with her weapons pouch nowhere in sight. Her boys didn't seem to be fighting the stranger, but Kentsu's chakra was fluctuating angrily; not the sort of angry he got about losing payment for a mission or seeing Mokuren spar, it was on a much higher level than that. Grabbing two kunai from Kentsu's pack, Mokuren wobbled out of the tent. The stranger was holding a blade to Tetsuko's throat and seemed to be trying to convince Kentsu to drop - wait, was that _her father's sword?!_

"What the hell, moron!" She shrieked, startling the stranger enough that he dropped Tetsuko and spun around to face her. Although she wasn't quite aware of it then, she was quite a sight and the strange man was too surprised to even try and dodge the blade that lodged itself in his throat. Mokuren didn't pay any mind, however, instead running at Kentsu. She was dizzy, numb, confused and not exactly sane - or at least, that's what she would tell herself later.

"Gimme that!" She whined, reaching for the sword. Kentsu pulled away, looking concerned and frightened, and so Mokuren grasped the blade, not even seeming to feel her palm being sliced.

Kentsu stared in horror at the blood dripping off her hands. "D-don't hold that side!" He yelped.

"Then gimme your side!"

"Let go and I will!" He yelled back, looking panicky.

Mokuren froze suddenly, released the sword and spun around, barely avoiding have her upper arm sliced. After a moment she frowned over her shoulder. "What was yer face like that fer? There's nobody there!"

"Uh, sorry?" Kentsu said lamely, the sword falling out of his shaking hands. His eyes then slid to Tetsuko and the dead man he was frantically crawling away from.

"Ringo's okay right?" She asked, watching too. "How'd he get caught like that, anyway!" Mokuren complained, stumbling towards the black-haired boy. Ignoring the fact that he seemed even more terrified of her then of the dead man, she pulled him to his feet and dragged him into the tent. He had numerous bruises, she noticed. "So ya did try 'n get away, good... Oi, Bishou, whadda we got? Like, supplies?"

"Five more meals... we ran out of water this morning." Kentsu answered, looking worriedly between her and Tetsuko, who still seemed to be trying to escape from Mokuren.

"You okay, Bishou? Answerin' without arguin' or nothin'... Eh, whatever. I'm sure yer fine. Where's otou-tan's sword? Oh, yeah, dropped. You get it? I get it, yeah..." She grew less and less coherent as she went on, but still made it out of the tent and came back with her sword. She returned it to its sheath clumsily.

Mumbling about Kentsu's inconsideracy and stupidity, she then curled up in a corner and slept.

The fourth time she woke up could well be considered the worst. Mokuren had only slept for two hours, but it was enough for her mind to clear itself and regain sanity enough to understand what she'd done.

"I'm a _killer_." She hadn't meant for the realization to leave her mouth, but she knew it had because Kentsu inhaled sharply. Turning to stare at him, Mokuren whispered, "Did I... really... am I? Oh _god._.." A wave of nausea hit her as she reviewed her memories, and she practically leapt out of the tent as acidic bile raced up her throat. As she also began to hyperventilate and choke on her puke, she felt someone begin to rub her back, and was a little confused to sense that it was Tetsuko. She could remember the horrified look on his face, only hours ago...

But now he seemed quite calm, and was saying things like, "You're not a killer, you were just protecting me..." and, "Shhh, it's alright, you weren't really _you_..." Which were a little contradictory but nonetheless soothing.

Once she had recovered enough to talk, she blurted out her question - somehow, it turned into a statement en route. "You were scared of me, earlier."

"You looked like a demonic crab." He answered, surprising a shaky laugh out of her.

"So... you don't..?" But she couldn't bring herself to ask.

"I don't what?" Tetsuko's voice was still soft. Mokuren just shook her head.

After a moment of comfortable silence, she heard Kentsu settle in on her other side and then take on of her hands. "Thank you." He murmured, his voice containing so many emotions Mokuren couldn't pick any specific one out. She shook her head again, refusing the gratitude. She'd killed someone other than that person, she'd _broken_ her _promise_...

"Hey, can you put on clothes now? This is kind of awkward." Kentsu suddenly said. He sounded much more normal now, and so Mokuren nodded. After pulling herself together and wiping as much of the puke as she could off with the rags that remained of her old outfit, she put on Kentsu's long coat and then set to piecing together the information the two boys gave her. They weren't entirely sure how long they'd slept right after the sandstorm, but two weeks had passed since then. This recent attack had been the third on their little camp - the first two had also been just one person attacking them each time, although they were pretty sure the person Mokuren killed had been the first attacker back again trying to retrieve the supplies they'd stolen from him before - which confirmed what she'd thought a day or two ago, that everything they hadn't been holding had been blown away with Temari.

As far as the storm itself went, the boys hadn't been injured much. She'd stood in the way of the storm and kept much of the sand from hitting them, and they had kept their hands over their mouths and noses so that very little sand entered their lungs, and besides which their clothes were well-made for the conditions and had protected them greatly. Mokuren, however, had used her arms to keep the three together and had inhaled quite a lot. Her clothes were thin and didn't cover much anyway, besides which, and over the first few days the boys were absolutely convinced that she was going to die right in front of their eyes. She had almost choked to death on her own blood once, actually, because apparently neither boy had ever cared for a drunk person or a baby and did not know to turn her on her side if there was a chance she'd cough something up.

Still, they'd taken pretty good care of her, all things considered. They'd kept her hydrated and alive, and she could move around now. She wasn't fully healed by any means, but Mokuren seemed to be well enough to fight minor enemies. As she set to work straightening up the camp and deciding what they should do next, Mokuren couldn't help but hope that Temari would come for them soon.


	9. Lost Mission - Captured

_**Arc Two, Lost Mission; Chapter Three, Captured**_

Three hours. Kentsu shook his head disbelievingly. He and Tetsuko had searched desperately for people and water throughout the first couple days and had such difficulty obtaining it... but it took Mokuren a mere three hours of looking to locate a camp, probably even the camp the bandit she'd killed earlier was from. She then snuck in - by herself, still injured! - and stole several pairs of clothing and enough scrolls of water to last the team a week even if they drank like crazy.

Don't get him wrong, Kentsu was really grateful. He'd been pretty sure even as he struggled to live during the last two weeks that all of their efforts would be for nothing - that Mokuren would bleed to death and he and Tetsuko would soon dehydrate, and they'd all three end up buried by sand for a thousand years and then be found all mummified at which point someone would reanimate them to start the zombie apocolapse all over again... and instead, they were going to be fine.

He wasn't disappointed. Not at all - really! And he wasn't feeling inferior or useless, either; nevermind that Tetsuko had been obeying Mokuren's recent commands to the letter and getting much more done than Kentsu was because the salmon-haired boy still felt the need to protest even though it was clear that Mokuren knew what she was doing. In a way, he did it to deny the part of him that occasionally thought of what she'd done earlier and felt afraid.

Tetsuko had been frightened when Mokuren had appeared suddenly to save him, and had killed that man... but he had been so much more horrified about her initial reaction - the way she acted as if the life that had just ended was meaningless. In the two hours that she had slept right afterwards, Tetsuko couldn't bring himself to move. He stayed where Mokuren had left him, crying silently and wondering what sort of person could just not care. The man had been about to kill him, yes; but Mokuren could have just knocked him out! He'd thought to himself that if that's what it meant - being a shinobi - killing people without any remorse at all... then he would be quitting the second he got back to Suna - if he _ever_ got back to Suna.

Seeing the look of pure self-loathing on her face when she woke up, and the fact that the guilt was enough to make her physically sick... somehow, that cleared away his doubts. Killing without remorse wasn't possible, even for Mokuren, and as awful as he'd felt she was obviously much worse off. After she wiped away the tears and the puke, her expression had again hardened and then she proved that she was still bossy, still strong, still determined, still Mokuren.

Throughout the last couple of weeks Tetsuko had been stressed all of the time, scared by the attacks and had felt so hopeless and useless whenever he had looked at her lying half-dead. He'd barely been able to keep going by telling himself that Mokuren would be okay, and that he would be able to thank her. He knew that she wouldn't have been injured any where near as badly if she hadn't kept them together when the wind tried to throw them apart, and if she hadn't blocked much of the sand with her back her clothes would have certainly fared better. Tetsuko didn't know if she'd unconsciously protected them or if she had done it for her own sake later on, or maybe even because she cared, and he'd probably never be able to ask her. It didn't really matter in the end - he owed her so much, he doubted he would ever be able to pay her back in full. Even though she had been acting rather coldly since their group hug had ended, Tetsuko was still happy to do whatever she told him to.

Neither boy had paid much attention to survival lessons back in the Academy - Kentsu distinctly recalled yelling that he was strong enough he didn't need such dumb lessons. Inoue had scolded him and explained the importance but as always, he'd tuned her out... so listening to Mokuren was about the only option at the moment, although Kentsu had a sneaking suspicion that the brunette was playing this by ear.

For a couple of days, their lives were much easier than before. And then in the middle of the noon meal, Mokuren suddenly swore and jumped up, abandoning her food and hurrying to start sealing the water back into scrolls. It cost less chakra to pull them out than it did to put them back in, and Mokuren's chakra stores hadn't recovered still. "Pack up everything, now." She ordered, rushing to grab her own things. Neither boy questioned her, although Kentsu hurried through the rest of his lunch before he started packing. They had the camp cleaned up within ten minutes and Mokuren spent an additional three removing any evidence of their campsite, including hesitantly covering up the mark she had placed over where she buried the body in sand.

They ran, two-thirds unaware of the reason for what felt to Kentsu like hours. The pace Mokuren set was slow enough for them to keep up but fast enough that they had no breath to spare. When they finally stopped and Mokuren began to set things back up in quite as much of a hurry as she had packed them away, Kentsu was able to ask, "Why'd we move?"

"Bandits. They found my trail." She sounded distinctly annoyed, probably at herself. "We shouldn't really stop now, but the two of you look exhausted. Why aren't I a Doton user? Then maybe I could hide us underground, in the bedrock below the sand and they probably wouldn't be able to find us. That would be so much more _useful_." Her voice had gotten quieter as she went on, and Kentsu frowned to himself. He'd never heard Mokuren tell herself off like this or put herself down, and he really didn't like it as much as he'd have expected.

"We're not so tired that we can sleep knowing a bunch of guys are after us!" Tetsuko protested, sliding past the rest of what she'd said. If he focused on it, he would become discouraged.

"Just tired enough to be useless in a fight." Mokuren retorted, and in an icy voice continued with, "If you don't think you can fall asleep naturally, I can knock you out."

Kentsu's eyes widened in surprise. Mokuren was acting so out of character and he didn't really understand why, but pride dictated his words nonetheless. "Ha, like you could, you're -"

Tetsuko wasn't sure whether to be scared or relieved when Mokuren easily laid his frenemy out and began to tuck him into his sleeping bag. "Do I need to help you, too?" She asked, the cold gone from her voice. She just sounded tired now. Tetsuko his head hurriedly and crawled into his own bag. "I'm going to keep watch for a few hours. When I'm too tired to keep my eyes open I'll wake you up and you'll watch for a few hours. Then it'll be his turn." Mokuren explained before stepping back out of the tent.

Tetsuko had a short but confusing dream in which Temari found them but declared that they couldn't return home until they could beat Kankurou in a comedy competition, and the dream ended with the crowd in the restaurant the competition was taking place in chucking apples at him, bruising his right arm and shoulder...

"...maybe I should just wake Kentsu up." Mokuren's voice finally cut through and obliterated the dream.

"No, 'm up." Tetsuko chimed, sluggishly sitting up.

"Oh, good. Now go sit out there - if you see or hear anything but sand and the wind, wake me _immediately_." She stressed the final word as she shuffled around in her bag.

"I will... what's that?" He asked, confused. It sort of looked like she was holding a medicine bottle.

"Sleeping pills. They're nothing serious, you'll still be able to wake me easily enough."

Tetsuko nodded, still eyeing the bottle uncertainly. Mokuren took three before curling up in her sleeping bag.

Tetsuko spent his watch nervously watching the horizons and jumping when the wind made any sort of noise. Eventually he realized he was nodding off and went in to wake Kentsu.

The salmon-haired boy felt disoriented and a little confused, but went out and around nonetheless. Mostly for zombies. Surely, being out in the wilderness at night with no moon meant he would get to see zombies! But he just wasn't seeing any.

Kentsu wasn't even sure why he wanted zombies to be real. Undead things were supposed to be creepy, right? But he'd heard so many stories about the people brought back to life by edo tensei during the Fourth Great Shinobi War while he was growing up and he'd always been curious.

"Alright there, boy?" An unfamiliar voice asked with a hint of a sneer. Kentsu frowned over at the man, wondering where he'd come from. He was about a foot taller than himself, with brown hair and black eyes. His clothes looked shinobi-like but he didn't have anything marked with the symbol of a hidden village.

"No. 'M tired." Kentsu grumbled back to him. This answer briefly surprised the man.

"Is that so? Well then, let's do this the easy way and let you nap a bit, after you give us back the water you stole."

_Easy way, easy way, easy way..._ the phrase rang around Kentsu's head, setting off the alarm. His heart jumped into his throat as he remembered the last time he'd heard that phrase, when it came from another stranger. That stranger had said it while holding Tetsuko hostage. With the fog of sleep gone from his mind, Kentsu pulled out a kunai - or tried to, at least. The man was way ahead of him and took the knife, pinning Kentsu to the ground with it by his sleeve. "You're a pretty cute kid. Kinda dumb, but some would say that's extra adorab -" The man's weird rant was cut short by a sudden fist to his face. Kentsu didn't really have to wonder whose fist it was because as the man was flung back Mokuren followed, taking ahold of his arm and breaking it. He cried out, and she snorted in response.

"A ninja shouldn't react to pain so loudly." Mokuren remarked, but then paled and spun around, throwing shuriken towards the new enemies. "You are never taking watch again." She informed Kentsu as she stepped closer to him, eyeing the six new people circling around them. One stuck out - a woman with blonde hair rather than the brown her male companions had. Her expression was also different - she was staring at Mokuren like she was some kind of ghost, and seemed not to have noticed the shuriken lodged in her arm. The other two looked angry, and were holding a sword and a hammer, respectively. "Alright, there?" Mokuren asked the other girl, who jumped back, startled.

"Ayano-chan?" The first guy croaked, having moved so that he could see.

"Hm? Ah!" The girl pulled the shuriken out of her arm, having finally noticed it.

"That's a much better reaction to pain." Mokuren couldn't help saying, despite the situation. Ayano refocused her eyes on Mokuren, anger and uncertainty swimming around in that forest green.

Biting her lip, she ordered her men, "Check if there's anyone in the tent."

Internally, Kentsu swore. Tetsuko was still asleep, he knew - the black-haired ninja was a rather deep sleeper. He felt very conflicted as one man edged towards the tent before slicing it open... to reveal nobody. Kentsu glanced at Mokuren, who looked amused but not at all startled and tried to school his expression to hide his own surprise. He wondered where Tetsuko had gone - Kentsu couldn't see any hiding places in the area. Had Mokuren set something up?

"How many sleeping bags are there? There's got to be someone else - Suna nin never travel in groups less than three." Ayano spoke tightly, watching the two in the middle of the circle.

"Just two."

"Is all of the water there?"

Mokuren's slight smirk turned into a frown as the man answered in the negative. "Sorry, I'll be back soon." She whispered quietly enough that only Kentsu could hear and then leapt suddenly towards the blonde. Only two of them tried to attack her - the others just sort of blinked. When the first attack hit, she disappeared in a poof of smoke and a sleeping bag fell in her place. All five men spun to look at the tent, where they supposed she had kawarimi'd to - and she hadn't. Only Ayano thought to try and take Kentsu prisoner to force Mokuren out of hiding, but Tetsuko dropped down on her from the sky as she tried. While Tetsuko fought her, Kentsu had a complete 'WTF?!' moment, in which he started waving his arms around while watching the sky. He only snapped out of it when someone grabbed him from behind, and of course that was rather late... but the man behind him was clearly an idiot and Kentsu managed to break his grip and get out.

A sudden explosion took out two of the bandits - probably a trap Mokuren had set up very recently, because she hadn't warned Kentsu about it. He was very nearly killed because he'd frozen out of surprise, actually, but the guy he was fighting was pretty slow even though he was physically stronger. It was kind of weird, being the faster one in a fight. It wasn't at all what Kentsu was used to, but he felt he was doing pretty well anyway.

Tetsuko was definitely struggling. This Ayano-whomever was stronger than he was, definitely, and he was barely evading her attacks at this point. To begin with they'd been on equal footing - she was injured and distractable and Tetsuko was quite focused, despite having woken up less than ten minutes prior. Mokuren had gotten him up, actually, and sliced a line along the bottom of the tent to create an escape route through the sand. He'd dug out a space, wet the sand so it would hold better, sewn the floor back together over him and waited awkwardly with his sleeping bag until Mokuren replaced it. There wasn't a whole lot of space down there and they had a near-miss with sharing an arm, but once that was sorted out, Mokuren dug her way off to plant bombs while Tetsuko crawled back up to the surface. He quickly formed the seals for kawarimi, threw one kunai as far up as he could and stabbed his hand with another. Falling through the air felt very weird; the force of the air pushed his hair back forcefully and nearly knocked off his hitae-ate, but it wasn't as much trouble as he'd have expected to direct himself towards the girl attacking his friend. Knocking her down and scaring Kentsu was actually really fun. He hoped he could make an entrance like this again someday.

Kentsu finally managed a lucky shot that sent his opponent flying. Not nearly as far as Kentsu had hoped, but enough that he could leap after and knock him out without too much trouble. His hands freed up, he butted into Mokuren's fight, taking one of her three opponents. She had just broken one of her opponent's arms and kicked the other in the balls, and seemed a little annoyed by his interference. "Tetsuko looks like he could actually use some help." Mokuren sneered at him.

"He can handle a dumb girl by himself." Kentsu said confidently.

Mokuren glanced over to see that Tetsuko was sweating like a dog while Ayano smirked as she fought him and sighed. "You take this one, too." She called, tripping up an opponent and shoving him towards Kentsu. Focusing on the one remaining, she made a few handsigns and activated Daitoppa. Caught by surprise, the man was blasted backward and landed on his neck with a sickening crack. He didn't stand up again, and Mokuren turned to join in Tetsuko's fight when she noticed the first man she'd hit on his knees, senbon heading away from him. She didn't have enough time to warn her teammates, and barely had enough time to dodge the one aimed at her. There was something on it - she could see some liquid dripping off and looked to her teammates, alarmed. They hadn't even noticed, and were still fighting, although Tetsuko's opponent had pulled back. Seeing nothing else that she could do until they reacted somehow, she stabbed one of Kentsu's opponents as he knocked out the other and then the boys suddenly fell.

"What was on those senbon?"

"Don't worry, it wasn't poison. There's no point using any, after all. Now drop your weapons." Neiro ordered, standing up shakily with a kunai and moving to stand by Kentsu. Feeling slightly hopeless as her adrenaline suddenly crashed, Mokuren dropped her weapons and removed her pouch, gently kicking them away. "Good. When I came here I was just planning on taking your things and going, but you've given us quite a lot of trouble." Neiro sneered, changing his grip to prepare to throw the kunai. Mokuren was frozen, unsure whether she should dodge or not, when it came.

"Don't hurt her." Ayano suddenly said, and Mokuren fell back a step, confused by the sudden development.

"Ayano-chan..?" Neiro frowned over at the blonde, sneer long gone from his face.

"_Look_ at her. Try to imagine her face if she had pale skin instead of pink." She urged him.

The man didn't understand what she was getting at but did his best. After a moment, his eyes bugged out. "Mei." Mokuren recognized that name, and wondered if he somehow meant the same Mei the lady in the restaurant had.

"She's Mokuren. Mo-ku-re-nnnnn..." Kentsu corrected Neiro even though he could barely move his lips.

"Well, obviously she isn't actually Mei. I meant that she closely resembled her... do you think she's really close enough?" Neiro asked Ayano. "If the resemblance isn't enough, things would only get worse." That was still awfully cryptic, but Mokuren felt she understood what was going on a little better.

"Definitely. I thought she _was_ her when I first looked her in the eye, and I knew Mei even better than he did."

"But the personality's all wrong and we don't have any genjutsu users strong enough to mess with a ninja. Let's just kill them all already." Neiro said abruptly, and ignoring Ayano's glare he pulled Kentsu back up by his hair.

"Wait a minute!" Mokuren interrupted, trying not to let panic color her tone. "We can work something out, can't we?! You need someone to pretend to be this... Mei, right? If you leave them alive - with all of our provisions, including what we stole - I'll go with you willingly and act as her." Despite her efforts, she was very clearly pleading.

Neiro and Ayano traded a glance, the man's accompanied by a slight smirk. "If you go back on your word, we'll hunt them down and they won't have nearly as easy a death." Neiro threatened, lowering Kentsu more carefully than Mokuren would have expected him to.

Ayano walked over to her slowly, stepping carefully around Tetsuko's body. She tied Mokuren's arms behind her back and added a chakra restraint seal that Mokuren felt right away. It was a bit dizzying, feeling her own chakra fall away to be carried along by a breeze. After shuffling through Mokuren's bag, she pulled out the bottle of medicine and raised her eyebrows. Mokuren nodded in response, and Ayano pocketed it.

"The paralyzer is already fading out of their system. We'd better get a move on." Neiro remarked.


End file.
